NI car import

leinster93

Looking at buying a car with 8500 miles up north. Would it be expected for the garage to have a service done before selling despite the mileage?

colm_mcm

Depends, it may have an 18000 mile interval or be on variable intervals, I wouldn’t take it for granted that it would be serviced early for the sale.
How old is the car?

leinster93

The car is 10 months old.

As far as I now understand, the service interval is 2 years or 18,000 miles. Which ever comes first.
The garage is looking to spend little as they know i'm interested...but when a car is taken in by a reputable garage is it the done thing to service it?

colm_mcm

Here’s how I would have approached it when I was selling,

If you were taking in a 5 year old car that was due a timing belt in the next 10/15k, you would do it as part of the prep work, and factor it into the buy-in price.
If you were taking in something that allegedly was serviced, but not by a main dealer, or where there was no proof of service, you’d get the workshop to service it.
If you were selling a demo model where it wasn’t due a first service yet. You wouldn’t usually service it unless it was going to need it soon. If the customer insisted, you’d get it done (first service has relatively low cost and no surprises), but everything costs money, so if you’re getting a stonking bargain on the car you can’t expect everything for nothing.
Given that it’s due the first service in a year, they know that it absolutely has had all the necessary work done so far (I.e. none)